Page 16 of Kiss the Dawn
He lightly touched my chin. “You know I would come with you if I could, if?—”
“I didn’t want to kill you every time you were in the same room with me?”
His finger moved to trace the curve of my lips. “Yes, that.” His free hand slipped around my nape, and he drew me close, using his thumb at my jaw to nudge my head up even more so that I was looking him full in the face. “I won’t let them have you, you know. If the mageri fails to find a loophole, then they can burn for all I care. They can’t keep you.”
“Because you want to keep me?”
“Because without you, my cold, cold heart refuses to beat.”
I gasped, and he pressed his thumb to my bottom lip, a storm of emotions swirling in his eyes.
God, he was beautiful, carved marble planes waiting for my kisses. Waiting to be explored with my lips.
Lips…his lips, so close now. Hovering over mine and tugging erratic heartbeats from my chest.
My eyelids fluttered closed. “Ezekiel…”
“Yes, Little Silver?”
“Are you going to kiss me now?”
“Undoubtedly.”
His lips were firm yet soft, questing yet gentle, testing even. In the past, he’d crushed me to him, bruised me with his ardor, each kiss a final assault, but this…This was new. It felt like…like the beginning, and my heart swelled. I cupped his face and kissed him back, tasting the phantom wine on his lips, on his tongue, teasing the sharp edge of his fangs and aching to feel them pressed to my flesh.
He groaned, a soft, desperate sound that evoked a pulse between my thighs. “Oh, sweet, sweet Silver.” His fingers slid into my hair, fisting and tugging, enough to hold me firm, enough to angle me so he could deepen the kiss and drink in my sighs and my moans until I was weak-kneed and clinging to his frame.
He broke the kiss, his golden eyes swimming with crimson rivers. “Three days,” he said. “If you’re notback in three days, then I will come for you, no matter the cost. You tell your mageri that. Three days.”
I fought against the tide of desire to think through his demand. “It’ll take a day to get there and one to get back so?—”
“Five, then.”
I opened my mouth to explain that it could be longer, that we might need more time with the contract, but he faded away, and a moment later, I tumbled into true dreaming.
I woke suddenlywith the awareness that I wasn’t alone in my room. I continued to breathe, slowly and evenly, as if I was asleep, scanning what I could see of my bedroom. It was that time just before dawn, before the world turned gray and shadows fought to stay alive, huddled in corners like ink stains.
I caught movement in one of those spots, and a moment later, darkness surged toward me.
Chapter 6
Imade to scream, but a hand covered my mouth and the scent of sweet evergreen hit me.
Ordell?
The shadows fell away, dispersing to reveal my mate, as if they’d been nothing but a cloak. “What. The. Fuck.” My words were muffled by his hand.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.” He released me.
“What was that? How did you?—”
“I don’t know. I just…I have a key, and I wanted to see you, and I remember thinking I didn’t want to wake anyone, so I let myself in and then…This happened. I think it’s a new development for the curse.”
“A handy one.”
He was leaning over me, one knee on the mattress, his hand now pressed to the spot besidemy head. Heat beat off him and kissed my skin, and something inside me stirred.
He must have sensed it because his eyes darkened, gaze dropping to my mouth. He licked his bottom lip. “There’s an hour before dawn. If we’re quiet, then?—”
